Afterwards
by kaahiescheck
Summary: Piper and Leo have a heart-to-heart on Festus on their way to Oklahoma, the way only best friends can. (Spoilers for The Burning Maze, but, honestly, if you haven't read it yet, I don't even have words for you.) (No romance, don't be a moron.)


**SPOILERS FOR THE BURNING MAZE.**

 **Because I just love their friendship and I just have a lot oF FEELINGS RIGHT NOW.**

* * *

They were almost crossing the border to Arizona when Leo felt Piper lean over and rest her head against his shoulder blades. They'd been flying for four hours since leaving Santa Monica and would have been making more progress if Leo didn't have to slow Festus down so they wouldn't be _too_ ahead of Mr. McLean's SUV and Coach Hedge's Pinto.

(Mellie was riding with little Chuck in the SUV, as promised, and had convinced Mr. McLean that his daughter was with Coach Hedge so she could fly on Festus with Leo and have a moment to breathe.)

"Hungry, yet?" Leo threw the question over his shoulder.

He felt Piper shaking her head before she settled down again. "Dad was planning on stopping in the first Arizona city he found, so we'll stop when he does."

"We don't have to stop for me to get you a taco."

"I know. Thanks, Leo."

He felt like maybe he should argue more, because she had told him she hadn't been able to stomach any breakfast, and it was now early afternoon. However, he himself was feeling nauseous, so he couldn't exactly blame her.

"I'd broken up with him."

Leo almost jerked Festus's reigns, which would have been a little disaster. Piper had spoken so softly, he thought he might have misunderstood her in the wind. She was very close, though, and he was pretty sure he'd gotten it right.

He frowned. "You _what_?"

Piper sighed, turning her head so that her forehead was leaning against his back. "Months ago. I… gods, I can't believe…"

"Hey," he turned around as much as he could, forcing her to raise her head. Her eyes were still bloodshot, but she met his gaze. "Wha – What happened? What d'you mean you guys were broken up? I thought –"

"Me too," she whispered, sadly.

The engines in Leo's mind set to work. He paused. "He didn't…?"

Piper took a moment to understand. "What? No, he… he didn't do anything wrong, no. It wasn't like that."

But as she said so, Leo could tell that, okay, maybe Jason hadn't done anything, but Piper didn't seem so sure as to what had happened, exactly. She dropped her eyes from his and brushed her hair out of her face, a nervous energy to her.

"What was it like, then?" he asked, turning back to the front so he wouldn't lose the cars below.

Piper shrugged. She stammered for a few seconds, trying to find the words. At last, she settled for a question, "Why did we even get together in the first place?"

It caught Leo off guard. Why had Piper and Jason gotten together? It seemed pretty obvious to him. I mean, even after knowing that his memory of the two of them getting steadily closer was fake and created by Hera, he could still see the way they acted around each other. He didn't think they had noticed, but during their first quest Leo saw all the furtive glances and soft touches they exchanged as if second nature. He might have felt like a bit of a third-wheel, but it was so _obvious_ that they had great chemistry that he couldn't even resent them.

He cleared his throat. "Well, Pipes, when two people love each other very much…"

She slapped his shoulder, "Idiot. That's not what I meant."

Leo tried hard to think back and figure out what could have possible gone wrong. If anything was going to create a rift between them, he had always figured it would be the unresolved issue of Reyna, but that was long over.

"I don't know what to tell you," Leo shrugged. "Honestly. What d'you want me to say? You guys just had this _thing_ , and you obviously liked each other. That's why couples get together, isn't it?"

"We knew each other for, like, a month, Leo," Piper argued.

"It didn't feel –"

"But it _was_ just a month," she interrupted. "We met in Grand Canyon, went on a quest, came back and, like, four weeks later I kissed him."

Leo shrugged again. "That can't be the national record. Calypso kissed me earlier than that."

"He didn't even have his memory properly back half the time I was flirting with him. That's no way to get to know someone."

"Pipes," he started, trying to keep up with her train of thought. "But then you guys had months to get to know each other and were still together. With the war going on and everything. I thought you'd be planning a party for your first anniversary and everything. Wait," he did the math, "wasn't that, like, a couple of months ago or so?"

Piper sighed. "Would've been." She was quiet for a while, and Leo thought she would end the conversation right there. However, he heard her taking a deep breath before saying, "Jason was actually excited for it." Another shaky breath. "And I couldn't… I couldn't just _lead him on_ like that, I needed – I felt like I couldn't breathe."

Leo frowning, trying to put the pieces together. "Piper…"

"But he wasn't suffocating me!" she defended him, immediately, even before Leo accused him of anything. "He was – he was just perfect. And that wasn't even the problem. I-I… I didn't know what I was doing."

Letting go of one of the reigns, Leo reached a hand behind him and found one of Piper's.

"I mean," she continued, "Hera put us together because she found it _fitting_ , and my mom was almost _encouraging_ me to pursue him, because she also found it fitting. They just decided they'd build the perfect couple."

"You guys were pretty amazing."

Piper squeezed his hand so tight he couldn't feel his fingers. "It wasn't right, what they did. They… they manipulated us into liking each other."

Leo took a deep breath. Okay, so she had a point. Maybe two goddesses had played with their feelings and all that, but… "But you _did_ like each other. In spite of or because of that, does it really matter?"

"It does to me."

They were quiet for a few moments, just feeling the wind in their faces. Then Leo couldn't stay silent anymore. "Look, Pipes, I get that. Anyone would hate being manipulated."

"If there's a 'but' in that sentence…"

"Of course there is, do you not know me?" he tried to lighten the mood, even though it was useless. A second later, he was serious again. " _But_ , I mean… _something_ made me fall in Ogygia, you know. It wasn't an accident. Calypso said her curse involves a hero showing up on her island once every thousand years. Percy had just been there, like, two years before. I shouldn't have been sent there."

She hesitated. "That's different, Leo."

"Is it?" he glanced at her over his shoulder before looking ahead again. "I mean, I'm not accusing your mom or anything, but it was totally a trap. Calypso _had_ to fall in love with me to allow me to leave, otherwise I'd still be stuck there. We both would. And we both knew that."

"Leo…"

"It doesn't make our feelings for each other any less real because of how they came to be." He huffed. "I'm not – I'm not trying to make you feel bad, okay? The situation is crappy enough. I don't even know the whole story. But I'm just _saying_ –"

"I know," she concluded. "I get what you're saying."

"So what was it?"

Piper took her time to answer, and Leo wondered if she'd talked to anyone about it before. It had been months, as she had said, but she still seemed so troubled about it. Maybe because Jason was now gone and she couldn't reconcile with him even if she figured out her feelings. Leo didn't know if he could make it any better, but he would try his damn hardest.

"The Cherokee say your heritage comes only from your mother," Piper said in a low voice. "Which I guess you'd appreciate. Me? Not so much. If for the Cherokee your father's side doesn't matter, then I'm not even Cherokee."

"Watch the paradox, Pipes."

"I feel like I don't know who I am."

It didn't sit well with the vision Leo had of her. Throughout their numerous quests, Piper had grown more confident and sure of herself, accepting her role as a daughter of Aphrodite and doing the best she could with it. She embraced her indigenous background as well, adding it to her strength. The fact that the gods may or may have not manipulated her into a (healthy) relationship… it shouldn't have shaken her foundations so much.

"You're Piper," he told her, simply. "Beauty Queen Supreme, Lady of Tragic Cherokee Stories, Knife-Handling Badass."

"And girlfriend of Jason Grace."

Leo frowned. "Piper, no one actually saw you like that."

There was a moment of pause before she spoke. "When the war was over and Chiron made us go to school and stop looking for you, I stopped to think about everything. I felt… I don't know, _dirty_ about being manipulated. I felt like I was letting them win." She rested her head on his back again. "I needed some time to figure myself out. Jason understood that."

That was something about the way she said that. "But I take it he wasn't too happy about it," he deduced.

Piper snorted. "Would you be happy if someone broke up with you with the good ol' saying, 'it's not you, it's me, but I still wanna be friends'?" She lifted her head, seemingly unable to be still. "He didn't make a scene. He tried to argue for a bit, but my mind was pretty set, and he knew he couldn't change it, so he spared the both of us."

"Sounds like him," Leo's voice came out more choked than he had expected.

"He never said anything after that day," she added, in a low voice. "He never insisted. But I could see it in his eyes that he didn't agree. He changed schools and tried not to bother me, unless there was something important going on."

"Like the maze."

Piper hesitated. "Like the maze."

It was another full minute before she spoke again. Meanwhile, Leo was processing all the information he'd just received. When he had come from Camp Jupiter, he had expected to find the both of them, still happily together, helping Apollo and ready to lecture him about sacrificing himself. What he had found instead had ripped his heart apart.

"He was hiding something from me," Piper confessed. "I know he was. Even after I'd insisted, I know he didn't tell me everything. One day, we got separated in the maze, and he was never the same again. I don't know what the oracle told him, but… it couldn't have been good."

Leo tried to bite back the question, but he couldn't. "You don't think it warned him…?"

Piper chuckled, although it sounded more like a sob. "That would be just perfect. He didn't even say goodbye."

"Maybe because he knew that, if he told you, you wouldn't let him."

"Of course I wouldn't! I can't believe he's… he's…"

"I know," he turned sideways and wrapped one arm around her, feeling his own eyes stinging. It still didn't feel real to him. He complained that he hadn't had a chance to say goodbye, but that wasn't entirely true. He'd said his goodbyes to Piper and Jason before exploding himself, just in case. But now that he was back, it seemed unfair that Jason had spent months looking for him, only to die before they could find each other again.

"Dad thinks it was a stupid surfing accident," Piper muttered against his shoulder.

Leo grimaced. "It's probably for the best."

"I know he can't know the truth," she leaned back to look at him. "But it seems so… so _unfair_ to Jason's memory to have my father believe he died because he wasn't careful around some rocks, instead of like the hero he is."

They stopped breathing. _He was_.

Piper sniffed. "He actually liked Jason."

For some reason, that brought a smile to Leo's face. "I'm sure he was the son-in-law every father dreams about. All tall and responsible and polite and whatnot."

Apparently, that wasn't the right thing to say, because Piper broke down in his arms, which made navigating Festus a little hard. He swung one leg over, so he could properly sit sideways and hold Piper more easily.

After a while of rubbing Piper's back, Leo thought he got what he had said wrong. Jason wouldn't be anyone's son-in-law, ever. He wouldn't grow up and get married (to Piper or not to Piper); he wouldn't have children, or grandchildren, and Leo knew he'd caught his friend looking wishfully at the kids in New Rome during the short period they'd been there. He would have made an amazing father. Now that was all tossed away.

"I…" Piper stammered. "He was still my best friend. I still loved him."

"He loved you too, Pipes."

"I thought maybe…" she sniffed. "I mean, after a while…"

He got what she meant.

She shook her head, seemingly to get rid of those thoughts "You should drive. We're approaching a city. Dad'll wanna stop for lunch."

Leo nodded and turned to the front. Almost immediately, Piper leaned against him, exhausted, and, as much as he was just as exhausted and emotionally drained, he figured she was worse and he let her rest.

"Thank you for coming back, by the way," she told him after a while. "I don't know what I would've done if I'd lost the both of you."

He chuckled. "Not getting rid of me that easy, Beauty Queen. I've plans to annoy you for a very long time."

He felt her smiling, which felt good. She had barely cracked one ever since he'd found her – to be expected, but still. If there ever was a time for him to use his sense of humor to keep someone from drowning, then that time was now.

"How's Calypso?"

Leo knew the question was coming, he just didn't think it would be so soon. He tapped his fingers against Festus's back. "I told you, she stayed in Indianapolis. We've been travelling and fighting non-stop for months, we thought we'd breathe a little and go to school. There's this place, the Waystation, totally awesome, with two ex-Hunters who took us in. But I had to help Camp Jupiter, so… here I am."

Piper was quiet, and Leo had the feeling she was studying him. How much she could pull from watching the back of his head, he didn't know, but the girl was good. Five seconds later and, "What is it?"

She could pull almost any answer from him.

"We're good. Really, Pipes," he added, when she scoffed. "Things have just been a bit chaotic and…" He took a deep breath. "She's just now regaining her powers. She could do all sorts of awesome things in Ogygia, but ever since I took her out of there…"

"It's not your fault."

He grimaced. "Yeah, it kinda is. But it's been getting better." It didn't take away the fact that he had striped her of her immortality, even if she had agreed to the risks. Then he realized something. "You shouldn't feel guilty either."

Piper tensed up.

"Look," he explained, "it's not your fault you broke up with him."

"Yeah, it kinda is," she imitated him.

"It's not your fault you broke up with him and then he died." It sounded harsh to his own ears. "He did what he always did; saved the day. Only this time, he couldn't escape as well. He would've done the same if you guys were still dating."

She didn't seem convinced. "I know he would. But I broke his heart, Leo. He was hurting. We didn't have a proper closure, we were going on these missions together… I know I can't control what I'm feeling and that it's not my fault… but it was pretty hard on him, too. I just…" She sighed, frustrated. "I just wish his last months hadn't been like that."

Leo was going to answer, but nothing could change the facts. Jason hadn't had the easiest of lives, which was common for demigods. He had died in battle, which was also typical. Still, there was something so _low_ about his death, something so completely unfair, but Leo couldn't put his finger on it. Apart from his mom, this was the only death that made him want to curl up inside his bunker and cry until he was dehydrated.

"Hey," Piper's voice cracked, "remember when Jason helped me with that physics essay? Because I'm absolute rubbish?"

"How you guys stayed up all night and he was a zombie the next day, but said it was nothing? You got a B for that, didn't you?"

Of course, they both knew it was a memory created by the Mist, because it took place before they knew they were demigods, while they attended Wilderness School.

"That was you, wasn't it?" Piper asked, carefully. "All the times I thought he'd helped me with physics and math. It was all you."

Leo hesitated. "It's been coming back to you too?"

"Bits and pieces," she admitted. "Like the fog is lifting."

"Yeah," Leo squinted against the sun when a cloud moved. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was me."

She squeezed his shoulder. "Thank you. For being patient with me."

Leo chuckled. "Hey, it's not your fault the numbers don't like you. But seriously, how can you be so _bad_ at it, Pipes?" He ignored her gasp. "It's math, it's concrete. It is how it is. Not like those poems for English –"

"You just had to think like the author!"

"As if I wanna pretend I'm a lonely dude in the eighteen-hundreds. They never say what they mean to say. What's the point in writing a book that people don't understand a word of?"

"What's the point in finding out how long it's gonna take for two cars to hit each other? We should be preventing the crash."

"We can't prevent the crash if we don't know when they're gonna hit each other."

"And why are constants so variable? And infinite? Why bring letters into it?"

"Some concepts –"

"Why are there imaginary numbers?"

"You didn't expect humanity to just give up and sit on its butt simply because negative numbers can't have square roots."

"And what are matrices even _for_?"

Now that was crossing the line. Leo gasped and brought a hand to his chest, feeling as though he had been stabbed. "I know you didn't just ask that."

"They're just these boxes with a bunch of numbers –"

"Have you ever played a game in your life? Or heard about quantum physics? Statistics? Encryption? Geometry?"

Piper huffed. "Boring."

"Okay, how about Festus's operational system?" As if to agree with him, the dragon creaked. "It doesn't just appear out of thin air, Beauty Queen. Someone had to program him to do things. Every. Single. Thing."

Piper sighed exaggeratedly and petted Festus's back. "Okay, there _may_ be a few applications –"

"A _few_?"

"I still don't see why _I_ have to learn it."

There was a pause. Then they both laughed and, for a moment, life was good. Life was _normal_ (well, maybe apart from the fact that they were crossing the country on a flying dragon). They were just two friends arguing about school subjects.

Even after their laughter died, they let the wind be their soundtrack. Their hearts still ached, and they would ache for a long time still, but that was the first spark of hope that maybe – maybe – things would turn out to be alright.

"I guess it's just you and me again, Pipes," he said, trying to hold on to their real memories in Wilderness School, when their biggest concern was about the geography test, because they both sucked at it.

This time, when Piper leaned on him, she let herself relax. She hadn't lost her oldest friend. He had come back, waltzing in with his metal dragon as if nothing had happened. She'd hoped Jason would do the same, coming down from the clouds, but she knew it was hopeless. She didn't know how long it would take to heal her heart, but at least she knew Leo would be there, pretending to be mad when she kept him up at night to ask questions.

" _This is hopeless."_

" _The formula isn't so hard."_

" _Yes, but it's the_ third _one for this test alone! And I have to know about cosine and sine and –"_

" _Just remember the song._ 1, 2, 3 / 3, 2, 1 _–"_

" _Projectile motion kinda makes me wanna projectile vomit."_

 _He smiled at her, but the longer she thought about it, the less it looked like a radiant grin and the more it looked like a smirk. The library wasn't so well-lit, but his eyes were darker than what she remembered, and so was his hair. He didn't brush her hand like before. Instead, he raised his eyebrows. "You never know when you might have to jump across a cliff, Pipes. Could save your life someday."_

 _His voice transformed in the middle of the sentence. The words were the same, but it started as gentle, simply stating a fact, in a low tone, and then it became shriller, mocking. She threw her papers at him, but she wasn't blushing this time._

Piper thought it was a bit sad. Just now when her real memories were coming back, when she would be able to look back with a clearer head, he was gone. She would get the chance to study her feelings better, but she would never get to tell him what she found out. Maybe one day, when she met him in Elysium. For now, she held onto the image of his smile instead of the broken memories.

Then she gasped, bringing her hand to her own lips. She remembered when Caligula had slapped her across the mouth to stop her from using charmspeak. Nectar and ambrosia had healed her jaw as much as they could, but a scar remained. On her upper lip.

"Piper?" Leo turned, concerned.

"The scar," she whispered.

"What?" he faced her.

Slowly, Piper lowered her hand, uncovering her mouth. At first, Leo didn't understand, but when his eyes caught the white line adorning her lips, it seemed like he had been sucker punched. His voice faltered, "W-when did you get that?"

"During… you know…"

"Oh."

"Oh."

She had a strong urge to laugh, but cry at the same time.

"Not a stapler, then?" Leo asked, completely serious. She caught the corner of his mouth twitching, though, and glared at him. He raised a hand to placate her. "Too soon?"

Piper sighed and looked at the sky above her. "What am I gonna do with you?"

"You love me, really."

"That is yet to be seen."

Behind his smirk, she saw the sad and happy smile he gave her. None of them knew what to do with the information, and it was fine. They didn't need to have all the answers for now. It was just a physical piece of him that they could keep, and one they would cherish, without a doubt.


End file.
